Czech Radio Vltava celebrates 50 years of broadcasting with a concert on Střelecký Island
Sunday, 4 September, marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Czech Radio Vltava. On the day, Vltava station will celebrate its half-century of existence not only with a cultural program that looks back at the most important moments in its history, but also with an exclusive joint broadcast with the Slovak station Devín. The celebration will culminate with a public concert on Prague's Střelecký Island, featuring singer Dan Bárta, jazz pianist Ondřej Pivec and many others.
"Czech Radio Vltava has been there for listeners for fifty years. If we look back over the years, we can see countless programs produced, endless hours broadcast and, above all, the top quality work of the radio staff. Without them, radio broadcasting would never have been created and developed into what it is today," said René Zavoral, Director General of Czech Radio.
On Sunday, 4 September 1972 at 8:55 am, the Vltava station began its first broadcast via very short waves with the theme from Smetana's symphonic poem that is the namesake of the station: Vltava. The broadcast was a continuation of the antecedent Czechoslovak Radio's third program, which was geared toward a classical-music audience. After the Velvet Revolution, the Vltava station began to devote itself to cultural themes, and it continues to do so today.
“At fifty years old, Vltava is in excellent shape – our listener numbers on our online platforms are steadily growing, and we are also managing to maintain interest in our linear broadcasts. It is clear that there is a need for a sophisticated cultural station like Vltava in the domestic media space even today,” said Jaroslava Haladová, editor-in-chief of Czech Radio Vltava.
The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Czech Radio Vltava, the only art-focused radio station, will take place on Sunday, 4 September from 4 pm on Střelecký Island in Prague in the company of the stars of the Vltava airwaves, the unique singer and musician Dan Bárta, one of the most successful Czech jazz keyboardists Ondřej Pivec, musician and visual artist Milan Cais, composer and singer Beata Hlavenková, jazz singer Marta Kloučková and Never Sol alias Sára Vondrášková, who will perform her own experimental electronic music and her own DJ set. The artists will be accompanied by the Gustav Brom Radio Big Band, conducted by Vladimír Valovič.
Czech Radio Vltava currently offers quality content for ambitious listeners – cultural journalism, radio plays, documentaries and literature, as well as classical and jazz music complemented by contemporary alternative music. The cultural station now broadcasts from a modern multimedia studio in the Czech Radio complex in Prague's Vinohrady district.
A detailed concert program can be found here. Admission to the event is free. The concert will be broadcast live on Czech Radio Vltava and on the station's social networks.